Witness: Hughes admitted to murder Taped interviews show suspect changed story several times

Wednesday

Aug 6, 1997 at 12:01 AM

ERIK NEELY

Prosecutors played Tuesday a tangle of taped statements from suspected murderer Chuck Hughes, showing a tale of his involvement that changed from interview to interview.

The tapes were from four interviews in May 1996 after Hughes had been arrested on charges he robbed and murdered Lynn Strickland of Duncan. In them, Hughes progressed from claiming he was with a former girlfriend at the time of the murder, to saying he was selling marijuana at the time, to saying he was present at the murder but did not pull the trigger. But that same former girlfriend testified Tuesday in Circuit Court that Hughes told her he had committed the murder. The body of 27-year-old Strickland was found May 7 under a guardrail near the intersection of Highway 129 and I-85 in Wellford. He had been shot five times and his wallet, which he carried on a chain attached to his belt, was gone. Investigators found a partially smoked marijuana cigarette lying on his chest. Prosecutors say Hughes killed Strickland, jealous that Strickland would reunite with his estranged wife, Connie, who had become Hughes' lover. Witnesses also testified Tuesday that the Stricklands often fought. Connie Strickland said Hughes had seen her husband pin her against a wall and jerk a phone from the wall. Hughes, 20, of 2 S. Adams St. in Taylors, faces the possibility of a life sentence if convicted. Investigators say they believe Strickland was killed in the late evening hours of May 6. Kami Lutricia Bryant, Hughes' former girlfriend, testified Tuesday that Hughes came to her home in Duncan during the pre-dawn hours of May 7 and told her he had killed Strickland. "He said, 'I put three bullets in him before he dropped, then I finished the clip,' "Bryant said. She said Hughes showed her Lynn Strickland's wallet, then drove her to an automatic teller machine where he withdrew $200 with Strickland's ATM card. Hughes bought pizza and soft drinks for Connie Strickland's three children with some of the money the next day, according to one of Hughes' statements to sheriff's deputies. Lynn Strickland's wallet was found wedged in the spare tire well of Connie Strickland's hatchback, the car Hughes was driving at the time of his arrest. Hughes told Spartanburg County sheriff's deputies they would find the wallet there. He said he had put it in there for safekeeping after Strickland had lost it in the car about a week earlier. But prosecutors portrayed that as one of a series of lies Hughes told to cover himself. "When you're driving a car and it's got a dead man's wallet hidden in the very back of it, then that's a problem," Detective Danny Shields told Hughes during the second of the taped interviews. In that interview, Hughes told Shields he was selling drugs during the time the murder occurred. But later that same day, Hughes told Capt. Evins Littlefield, who was bringing him lunch and a cigarette, that he was at the murder and knew who the real killer was. Littlefield, who has since retired from the Sheriff's Office, took a statement from Hughes describing a male accomplice who was going to help him rob Strickland. Instead, Hughes said he was surprised when the man killed Strickland. Hughes refused to give his accomplice's name but described him as a white male, 6 feet tall, 200 pounds and very muscular. "This is just not a normal person," Hughes said of the killer he described. "I mean, after he shot Lynn for no reason like that. "He does it for kicks, for fun. I think he gets a rush out of it." A week later, Hughes called sheriff's deputies to meet him at the jail, where he told them that his accomplice - the true killer - was not an anonymous man, but Connie Strickland. Hughes repeated that accusation Tuesday, when he testified in his defense. He said Connie Strickland got a pistol from the glove compartment and shot her husband after he "nudged her face with his hand." The three were smoking marijuana on the hood of Connie's car, Hughes said. Strickland denied the allegation on the witness stand, and prosecutors introduced phone records into evidence that showed she took a call from her first husband at 11:17 p.m. the night of the murder. Investigators say the phone call shows that she could not have participated in the murder. The defense chose not to cross-examine the majority of the prosecutors' witnesses and presented Hughes as its only witness. Closing arguments in the case will begin this morning.